Latitude
The VLCC Latitude is a Very Large Crude Carrier, as the name suggests. She is 314m long, making her one of the largest ships in Ship Simulator Extremes and Ship Simulator 2008. Analysis The VLCC Latitude is a very large and powerful ship which has the capacity of carrying 2-3 million barrels of oil during one voyage, which is equal to the daily oil consumption of the UK and Spain combined. Despite this, she can sail at a max speed of 16 knots, due to her powerful engines. She is very popular in open sea multiplayer games. The Latiitude was built in two sections by the International Shipbuilding Company in New York City and Yelllow Shipyards in Easton River North Carolina. The hull/admidship section was built in 1960. The stern/pilothouse section was built at the Yellow Shipyards Easton River Yard in 1961.The hull section was finished in 1963 and was towed to Easton River, were it was welded to the stern section. It was finally fininshed in 1965. The sailed as the VLCC Latitude and was owned the British company, TransOil. On May 6 1971, the tanker spilled 423 gallons of oil while unloading in Port Sudan. The spill was not fatal. The 1980 Pipe Burst On December 2 1980, While sailing in the Yellow Sea, the VLCC Latitude's 3rd pipe burst spilling oil all over the deck. The spill was contained later that night TransOil Sale The VLCC Latitude sailed back to Liverpool in mid 1990. It was later auctioned off to a New York based oil company called New York Oil. The "VLCC" was painted over the following year. It entered service as the Latitude in 1992. End of Service and Scrapping The Latitude saw little to no operation in 2010, it was mostly laid-up in Port Sudan. It was sold to a new company, Sudan Oil and Gas, in 2011. It was used as a storage hull. On July 5 2011, the Latitude was renamed "Oil Barrel" after the sale to Japkas Metal Recycling Company in Darwin Australia. It was towed out of Port Sudan to Darwin on October 4 2011. Dismantling began on November 30 2011. Scrapping was halted on December 20 2011 after a large fire erupted near a wall between the 1 and 2 cargo holds. The fire was caused by a welding torch and gas being ignited. The gas tank, which held 15,000 gallons of gas, exploded when a worker was smoking next to it. The worker was forcefully thrown into water and received minor burns and major injuries. As of January 2012, little scrapping has commenced by the fire damaged area, but the ship is still in one piece. On May 1 2012, Japaks Metal Recycling had posted on their website that the Latitude, still named "Oil Barrel" from it's time at Sudan Oil and Gas, was being put up for sale. In June of 2012, the name Oil Barrel was painted over and the name, "YELLOW DRY-DOCK # 10", was applied. The Latitude was bought by the Boston based, Yellow Shipyards Corporation. From July to August 2012, the ship was converted into a drydock. The now 714 foot long drydock was towed out of Darwin Australia bound the Yellow Shipyards Canada yard in Vancouver. The pilothouse and stern accommodations are still attached to the ship and are being used as offices and drydock control room for Yellow Shipyards. On December 4 2016, Yellow Shipyards Canada had retired "Yellow Dry-Dock # 10" and sent it to Alaska for sale. It's ownership was last listed as "Alaskan Marine Group" and was last spotted moored at "temporary dock" located on the northern most part of Fire Island in Anchorage. It now displays the name, "Yellow 10". Gallery LAT1.PNG|The bridge from exterior view. LAT2.PNG|The bridge. LAT3.PNG|The stairwell. LAT4.PNG|Looking at the ship from the main deck. Category:Ships Category:Ship Simulator Extremes